Joseph Robinette Biden (Junior)
Vice President of the United States
Democratic Party
US Senator from Delaware 1973-2009
A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dealing with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties:
- Violent Crime Control
- Law Enforcement Act
- Violence Against Women Act
Biden has been heavily involved in Obama's decision-making process.
Biden’s ‘ability to negotiate with Congressional Republicans played a key role in bringing about the bipartisan deals ...
”Biden attended the University of Delaware in Newark, where he was more interested in sports and socializing than in studying, although his classmates were impressed by his cramming abilities.”
.... “Syracuse University College of Law ... receiving a half scholarship based on financial need with some additional assistance based in part upon academics.”
”Biden received five student draft deferments during this period, with the first coming in late 1963 and the last in early 1968 at the peak of the Vietnam War.”
“In April 1968, he was reclassified by the Selective Service System as not available for service due to having had asthma as a teenager.”
“Biden was generally supportive of the war during much of this time and never became part of the anti-Vietnam War movement; he would later say that at the time he was preoccupied with marriage and law school, and that he "wore sports coats ... not tie-dyed".”
”Regarding foreign policy, during his first decade in the Senate, Biden focused on arms control issues.”
Biden ... long-time member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
BOSNIAN WAR
Lobbied for U.S. military intervention during the Bosnian War.
”Biden was among the first to call for the "lift and strike" policy of lifting the arms embargo, training Bosnian Muslims and supporting them with NATO air strikes, and investigating war crimes.”
“Both the George H. W. Bush administration and Clinton administration were reluctant to implement the policy, fearing Balkan entanglement.” [AS IF ... LOL]
“Biden wrote an amendment in 1992 to compel the Bush administration to arm the Bosnians...”
“... deferred in 1994 to a somewhat softer stance preferred by the Clinton administration, before signing on the following year to a stronger measure sponsored by Bob Dole and Joe Lieberman.
SAY HELLO TO:
1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina
FOLLOWED BY: Dayton Agreement.
“Biden has called his role in affecting Balkans policy in the mid-1990s his "proudest moment in public life" that related to foreign policy.”
“In 1999, during the Kosovo War, Biden supported the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia and Montenegro...
“... co-sponsored with his friend John McCain the McCain-Biden Kosovo Resolution, which called on President Clinton to use all necessary force, including ground troops, to confront Milosevic over Serbian actions in Kosovo.”
Biden ...
“NATO enlargement and the successful passage of bills to streamline foreign affairs agencies and punish religious persecution overseas.”
1991 – GULF WAR
Biden had voted against authorization for the Gulf War in 1991...said the U.S. was bearing almost all the burden in the anti-Iraq coalition.
2001 - AFGHANISTAN WAR
Biden pro 2001 war in Afghanistan, saying:
"Whatever it takes, we should do it."
2002 - IRAQ
“Biden stated in 2002 that Saddam Hussein was a threat to national security, and that there was no option but to eliminate that threat.”
“The Bush administration rejected an effort Biden undertook with Senator Richard Lugar to pass a resolution authorizing military action only after the exhaustion of diplomatic efforts.”
“2002, Biden voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, justifying the Iraq War.”
“While he soon became a critic of the war and viewed his vote as a "mistake", he did not push to require a U.S. withdrawal.”
“He supported the appropriations to pay for the occupation...”
“... argued repeatedly that the war should be internationalized, that more soldiers were needed, and that the Bush administration should "level with the American people" about the cost and length of the conflict.”
”By late 2006, Biden's stance had shifted, and he opposed the troop surge of 2007, saying General David Petraeus was "dead, flat wrong" in believing the surge could work.”
“Biden was instead a leading advocate for dividing Iraq into a loose federation of three ethnic states.”
“... 2006, Biden and Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, released a comprehensive strategy to end sectarian violence in Iraq.”
“Rather than continuing the present approach or withdrawing, the plan called for "a third way": federalizing Iraq and giving Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis "breathing room" in their own regions.“
“2007 .. a non-binding resolution passed the Senate endorsing such a scheme.
However, the idea was unfamiliar, had no political constituency, and failed to gain traction.”
“Iraq's political leadership united in denouncing the resolution as a de facto partitioning of the country, and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement distancing itself.”
LIBYA
'2004 - Biden secured the brief release of Libyan democracy activist and political prisoner Fathi Eljahmi, after meeting with leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli.
2008 - “Biden sharply criticized President George W. Bush for his speech to Israel's Knesset in which he suggested that some Democrats were acting in the same way some Western leaders did when they appeased Hitler in the runup to World War II.
Biden stated: "This is bullshit. This is malarkey. This is outrageous.
Outrageous for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement."
Biden later apologized for using the expletive. Biden further stated, "Since when does this administration think that if you sit down, you have to eliminate the word 'no' from your vocabulary?" '
[Source: wikipedia]
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COMMENT
Council on Foreign Relations sounds like the US 'war house'.
Joe Biden sounds like a jock.
And he hasn't personally seen active military service -- or any military service.
But, hey, he's happy to make war -- and is proud of making war on foreign soil.
Some NGO turned charity ought to do a worldwide survey, asking:
Is Joe Biden the most hated man on the planet?
If he can do deals with Republicans to get things done and if that's why he's so handy, he's got to be slime.
Not sure what the Israel-Knesset stuff even means.
Did notice that former General David Petraeus got a mention.
So Biden reckons he knows more than a general.
Must read the General David Petraeus Rolling Stone interview with Hastings.
Remember not thinking much about it at the time. Not interested in politics or politics of war at the time.
However, I did feeling sorry for Petraeus ... I thought he let his guard down and it seemed like this 'intimacy' or whatever it was, was perhaps exploited.
The above isn't some statement about war sides or anything; I don't know about that. It is just my initial impressions back then.
Anyway, no wonder Biden's got his snout stuck in Ukraine. It's right down his alley. LOL!
